A man was found guilty Thursday of a 2019 road rage shooting in Germantown, Maryland.
D’Andre Wall, 30, of Germantown, was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder and use of a handgun in a violent crime, the office of Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in a statement.
On Aug. 8, 2019, Wall’s car was cut off in an apartment complex on Crystal Hill Circle, where he lived, charging documents said. He followed the car, and when it stopped, he and the other car’s driver and passenger argued. The next time the driver stopped, Wall pulled up again and displayed a gun, the documents said, and then got out of his car and shot at the other car, injuring Elimar DePaula, a passenger.
Wall has a sentencing hearing Jan. 10. He’s facing up to 40 years in prison on the attempted murder charge and 20 on the handgun charge.
DePaula is now in a wheelchair and walks with the help of a walker and ankle braces. Later Thursday, she said the shooting “hasn’t just changed my life; it changed my family’s life.”
“The way I changed my clothes; the way I take showers; the way I use the bathroom — everything has changed for me,” she added.
DePaula was 19 at the time, 21 now. “I’m still young,” she said, “but those are supposed to be your best years of your life. And I feel like they kind of got robbed from me, you know?”
The process has “made me stronger, but I wouldn’t wish it on anybody and I would take it back in a heartbeat if I could.”
She said that if she could talk to Wall, she’d tell him “It’s really important to control our emotions because you can really affect somebody’s life. Even though it may not be your intention, you can really hurt somebody or kill somebody.”
DePaula also said she’d forgive him — “even though it’s been hard for me to get to that point.”
She added, “Don’t argue with people on the road, because it’s not worth it. You never know who has a weapon, who can harm you.”
“Firing a weapon in a neighborhood in the middle of the day over a matter of pride or disrespect is inexcusable,” McCarthy said in a statement. “This act of violence stemming from road rage led to a young woman nearly losing her life. We thank her for her courage in participating in the trial and look forward to a lengthy prison sentence for D’Andre Wall.”
Wall is the nephew of basketball player John Wall, who at the time was one of the Washington Wizards. McCarthy’s office released what it said were texts between the two men, in which D’Andre Wall sends John Wall a screenshot of an email alert about the shooting and says he “might need a lawyer.”
